Keeping Up with the Kardashians: Kim Kardashian West (ISFJ)

(Photo: Facebook)

As an ISFJ, Kim’s cognitive functions are introverted sensing (Si), extroverted feeling (Fe), introverted thinking (Ti), and extroverted intuition (Ne). An evaluation of those functions in action follows. To watch clips and learn more about Keeping Up with the Kardashians, visit the series website.


Dominant Si

The mind of dominant Si types (ISFJ/ISTJ) behaves like a “highly sensitized photographic plate” (Sharp 79). They notice every sensory detail and store it in their vast collection of memories.

Kim’s life revolves around sensory information. She profits off her knowledge of beauty and fashion trends through social media. Kim managed most of the inventory at DASH, the Kardashians’ clothing store. She fixated on details right before her wedding in Italy, from the size of the flowers to the color of her step-sister Kylie’s hair (still blue).


Auxiliary Fe

Auxiliary Fe types (INFJ/ISFJ) apply their dominant perceiving function to the happiness of those around them. ISFJs use their dominant Si to remember personal details about others, which helps maintain harmony and avoid conflict (Truity Psychometrics LLC).

Remove all the material possessions, and you’ll see that Kim genuinely cares about her family. She keeps Bruce’s gender identity secret for 12 years. When Khloe gets divorced, Kim surprises her with a pampering day. Keeping Up with the Kardashians wouldn’t exist without conflict, and yet Kim rarely disrupts the family harmony. She retreats to her boyfriend (Reggie Bush) instead of fighting with her sisters in Season Two’s “Kardashian Family Vacation.” When Kim's mother calls her a traitor for visiting Caitlyn Jenner (the mother’s ex-husband), her first reaction is to “stay neutral and not get involved.”


Tertiary Ti

The tertiary function should support the dominant and auxiliary functions. But when Si and Fe provide such “strong convictions of truth” (Personality Junkie), the tertiary function often gets ignored until the ISFJ matures.

Kim’s (many) relationships exhibit the development of tertiary Ti. She craves long-term companionship but would often choose the wrong people. Kim’s Fe wanted every relationship to last forever but never considered the potential conflicts (Reggie Bush’s unwillingness to get married, Kris Humphries’ career in Minnesota). On television, this craving came across as a fickle attitude toward commitment. But she said in a series interview that she never wanted to be with someone for just one night, “despite the rumors.” Kim’s successful marriage to Kanye West demonstrates that she’s not bad at commitment, just very eager to have a husband.


Inferior Ne

Inferior Ne types (ISFJ/ISTJ) see all the ways that a situation can go wrong. They experience “dark prophetic fantasies of what might happen in the outside world” (Sharp 82).

Kim has an anxiety of the unknown that causes her to take extreme preventative measures. When her mother jokes that she has crow’s feet at age 29, Kim immediately gets botox. When she’s diagnosed with psoriasis, Kim jumps to conclusions about the next day’s commercial and the imminent end of her career. But she follows through with the gig because she feels an (Fe) obligation to be loyal and professional.

Goodbye, photoshoots. Goodbye, red carpet events. Goodbye, anything that’ll potentially make [my mother] 10 percent.


References
Sharp, D. (1987). Personality types. Toronto, ON: Inner City Books.